Planning for migrating a firewall

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While coordinating on downtime / planning for migrating to a new firewall, it makes sense to have following information :

1. From when to when is the downtime?
2. Who is the contact person available during downtime to help with:
   • Cable identification (ISP1 cable, LAN cable, etc.) locally on site
   • Coordiante with local users on the site if and when services are disrupted during downtime.
   • Test after migration whether all critical services are up.
     • The point of contact must know what are all critical to the site and how to check them. Or he should know who to reach *during* downtime for the validation. Examples to check *not exhaustive*:
       • VPN and appropriate VPN policies
       • Incoming NAT to servers. Also combine this with ISP failover test mentioned later, if applicable.
       • Outgoing Internet access for users and servers with appropriate site blocking
       • IPSec connectivity to other units various subnets. Connectivity to various subnets of unit being migrated from other units.
       • Local logins or AD integration
       • Captive portal (if implemented)
       • Active/Passive failover if deployed in HA
       • ISP failover tests, if applicable
     • For every critical test ensure that the same is done on existing firewall and details are captured (Eg screenshot, URL, whether test is done over public Internet / VPN, etc.)
3. Is this migration necessary before a specific date? Eg before important event or before current license expires. If yes, please share the date?
4. What other downtime windows are possible before the migration end-date, if migration fails in the current downtime window.

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